Web Services provide various clients with information. Prior art cache systems address the issue of performance associated with Web Services. For example, a typical performance-oriented cache is used for situations where multiple clients make the same requests to a Web Service. As the same query is repeatedly made to the Web Service, the performance-oriented cache stores the result from such repeated queries. When the same query is then made again to the Web Service, the performance-oriented cache can quickly return the result without having to obtain the information from the Web Service all over again. In this way, the performance-oriented cache is intended to improve performance by decreasing the time and processing required to respond to the same queries to the Web Service.
In addition to the issue of performance, however, Web Services also have an issue with availability of information. For example, a client application may rely on information from a Web Service, but the Web Service is either down or unable to provide the required information. In some situations, the client application may fail or stop working altogether (“crash”) if it does not receive the required information from the unavailable Web Service. More typically, the client application will experience an exception when the Web Service is unable to provide the required information.
In general, clients want to maximize their respective up time, and they do not want to be subject to the availability of a remote Web Service that may not have been developed by the client or is not operated by them. One way of handling the issue of availability of a Web Service involves using a monitoring device to determine if the Web Service is down or unavailable. Unfortunately, using such a monitoring device does not sufficiently address the issue of availability, because the client application is still not able to obtain the required information.
The subject matter of the present disclosure is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.